One dog - three exercises - tracking clinic notes

Here is a look at one dog at the Cranbrook Tracking Clinic, showing three different exercises over two days, but one style of tracking by the dog.

Jagger is a 6-month old sable GSD who has been imprinted in Schutzhund so learned at the tender age of 3 months old to footstep track. If you refer to my earlier post called "The trinity of tracking" you will see that I believe we need to go back to this focus on the primary track when our long-term goal is to ALL get our UTDX. Jagger showed that this early training paid off. He is calm on track, and his head never comes up!

Here he is on the first afternoon - we did "three straight lines" on veg so I could watch dog behaviour and handling of each participant. Margie has a very calm manner and great body language, using her body and a soft voice to block him rather than doing any yanking on the line - keeping him on track and keep it positive and motivating - and stress free. You can see she is letting him track, but ready to jump in if necessary. There is food at the toe of every step here.
On day two we did another straight line, but it was a transition from veg, onto non-veg using bait and a jackpot on the article. I like that he doesn't rush to the article - as he is not article-focused yet, so he keeps his focus on the track itself.

On this transition, dogs went from veg, to gravel, back to veg. Check out that deep nose in the gravel. Gravel holds scent nicely compared with harder surfaces and every dog had this kind of reaction. Notice that she is still "letting him track" but ready to help if required.

Of course, an important factor is to make sure your tracks are marked well and you know exactly where you walked! Plus, it is important to know how much food to use for your dog and where to reward. Keeping a journal is the best way to keep track and plan your training sessions.